So my last "flying solo" post was from October 8th, 2013 when the babies were six days old and I took the night shift of 10:30-4:30 on my own in the demo room of the NICU. That was a crazy crazy night, but it was six hours. Flying Solo Round Two is a bit more of an undertaking because Michelle will be gone for five days and four nights at a conference! I think this trip will be Michelle's first night(s) away from the babies since that first night of flying solo and she was already missing them before she left! She's been gone less than an hour and I'm missing her already!
Obviously, we've known this day was coming for months and I've been feeling just fine about it the entire time...until last night when I could feel my chest starting to tighten just a bit as the anxiety set in. I know that it will be fine. We will survive and we will have lots of fun. And I also know that there will be hard times and that I will be so incredibly happy to see Michelle walk through our front door on Sunday! It seems a little ironic that the times I most nervous about are between the hours of 6pm and 8am, since they should be sleeping for at least 11 our of those 12 hours. But it's the word "should" that is the key. Nighttime sleep has never been easy for our trio (well, for Isaiah & Avery anyway) and we were not the lucky ones who have babies that sleep through the night from a couple months old despite the fact that we have a consistent bedtime routine, white noise, blackout curtains, a predictable schedule, etc, etc. But sleep issues are a topic for another post, except for the fact that those sleep issues and the fact that Isaiah & Avery still typically wake twice a night are the reason I'm most nervous about the nights. Thus far the only solid winning strategy guaranteed to get them to fall peacefully back to sleep is to nurse them. We've tried pretty much everything else, and sometimes those things (ignoring, patting, shushing, rocking, etc) work, but when they don't, nursing always does and it always works faster than the other methods. And I can't nurse both of them twice every night because I simply won't have enough milk. So I'll be trying everything else first and then trying bottles finishing with a little nursing if needed, but that will likely not be a quick process and will likely mean that I get very little sleep. I'm not really worried about the days. I have lots of playdates planned and have already taken food out of the deep freezer so I don't have to worry too much about making meals, but I am a little nervous that the days will seem harder just because I will likely be running on little sleep.
But we'll see, maybe this will all turn our better than we could hope and they'll magically sleep more or I'll find other non-nursing strategies that work and this will mark a turning point for us in sleep. A girl can dream right?! Wish me luck folks!
Obviously, we've known this day was coming for months and I've been feeling just fine about it the entire time...until last night when I could feel my chest starting to tighten just a bit as the anxiety set in. I know that it will be fine. We will survive and we will have lots of fun. And I also know that there will be hard times and that I will be so incredibly happy to see Michelle walk through our front door on Sunday! It seems a little ironic that the times I most nervous about are between the hours of 6pm and 8am, since they should be sleeping for at least 11 our of those 12 hours. But it's the word "should" that is the key. Nighttime sleep has never been easy for our trio (well, for Isaiah & Avery anyway) and we were not the lucky ones who have babies that sleep through the night from a couple months old despite the fact that we have a consistent bedtime routine, white noise, blackout curtains, a predictable schedule, etc, etc. But sleep issues are a topic for another post, except for the fact that those sleep issues and the fact that Isaiah & Avery still typically wake twice a night are the reason I'm most nervous about the nights. Thus far the only solid winning strategy guaranteed to get them to fall peacefully back to sleep is to nurse them. We've tried pretty much everything else, and sometimes those things (ignoring, patting, shushing, rocking, etc) work, but when they don't, nursing always does and it always works faster than the other methods. And I can't nurse both of them twice every night because I simply won't have enough milk. So I'll be trying everything else first and then trying bottles finishing with a little nursing if needed, but that will likely not be a quick process and will likely mean that I get very little sleep. I'm not really worried about the days. I have lots of playdates planned and have already taken food out of the deep freezer so I don't have to worry too much about making meals, but I am a little nervous that the days will seem harder just because I will likely be running on little sleep.
But we'll see, maybe this will all turn our better than we could hope and they'll magically sleep more or I'll find other non-nursing strategies that work and this will mark a turning point for us in sleep. A girl can dream right?! Wish me luck folks!
Good luck :)
ReplyDeleteVery good luck!! ;)
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